App Users Would Sacrifice Privacy for Security, Survey Finds

About 66 percent of respondents said the ability for police to more easily intercept communication between terrorists trumped privacy concerns.

British citizens would be happier if instant messaging services like WhatsApp came with encryption-hobbling backdoors installed.

According to a 2,000-strong survey from broadband price comparison site Cable.co.uk, 66 percent of respondents said the ability for police to more easily intercept communication between terrorists trumped privacy concerns.

More than half of those polled (51 percent) said they would feel safer if WhatsApp and similar services like Signal and Telegram were encrypted, though 25 percent said removing encryption or installing backdoors would make them feel less safe.

Over a quarter (26 percent) of those aged 25-34 said privacy was more valuable than giving security services greater powers compared to just 10 percent of those aged over 55. Men were also slightly more in favor of digital privacy than women (23 percent vs 14 percent).

The figures arrive in the wake of UK home secretary Amber Rudd calling for the likes of WhatsApp to work with the government on backdoors, following the Westminster terror attack which claimed the lives of four victims. Khalid Masood is understood to have used WhatsApp minutes before his attack.

Dan Howdle, consumer telecoms analyst at Cable, said he found the figures "fascinating," but branded the calls for encryption backdoors as futile.

"I find it fascinating the general public is largely willing to hand over unprecedented surveillance powers to the government in an attempt to address a danger statistically on equal footing to that posed by bees," Howdle said, echoing a remark made by David Anderson QC, the UK's former Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation.

"It's also a futile gesture. If commonly used apps such as WhatsApp and others are compromised in this way those who have the intent to do harm will simply use something even more secure. The government's call to access private messages is like decreeing all spoken conversations must be shouted – those who have nothing to hide will comply, while those with nefarious intent will whisper beyond our view."

By "beyond our view," Howdle's presumably referring to those portions of the web that are virtually impossible for security services to accurately monitor.

Days after the attack, Anderson's recent replacement, Max Hill, tweeted: "Encryption can frustrate investigators, but unchecked surveillance breaches fundamental rights. We must think before we act." He has yet to respond to any more media enquiries about the attack, though.

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More recently, Rudd met with communication service providers with a view to stopping "smaller and emerging platforms" that may lack the funding and backing of a Facebook-owned service like WhatsApp.

In a separate but related note, Adrian Kennard, director of UK-based service provider AAISP told PCMag that the cost of collecting subscriber data as per the Investigatory Powers Act would be prohibitively expensive for smaller companies.

The government has yet to comment on the economic consequences of banning end-to-end encryption.